Nadira
Feminine · “Arabic "rare”
Nadira means rare, and it is the feminine of a word that Arabic uses for anything unusual or precious — the same root gives nādir, from which English took the astronomical term nadir by a different path. It is one of a set of Arabic names that describe scarcity as a virtue.
How old is the name Nadira?
Nadira first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Nadira alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 1,000 people named Nadira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nadira most popular?
Nadira peaked in 2000, reaching #3070 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 4,063 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From نادرة (Nādira) to Nadira
The story of Nadira
Adjective names are a large and productive class in Arabic, and they cover a specific range: qualities a family wishes on a child rather than descriptions of one. Jamila, beautiful; Karima, generous; Latifa, gentle; Nabila, noble; Nadira, rare. The class traveled wherever Arabic did — into Persian, Urdu, Turkish and the languages of the Sahel. Nadira is used across all of them and appears in the American data from the 1970s onward, peaking in 2000, carried by both immigration and the earlier African American adoption of Arabic names.
Meaning
Arabic "rare, precious, unusual"
From the Arabic root n-d-r, to be rare or scarce; nādira is the feminine adjective. The English word nadir comes from the same root by way of naẓīr, the opposite point, and is a separate borrowing with a different sense — the two are related in Arabic but not in meaning as English uses them. The name's own etymology is not disputed.
How the name formed
- نادرةNādira
- Nadira
Related forms: نادرة · نادرہ · Nadire · Nodira
Pronouncing Nadira
NAH-dee-rah
Three syllables with the stress on the first and a long opening vowel. English speakers often say nuh-DEER-uh, moving the stress and reducing the first vowel, which changes the shape of the word noticeably.
Nicknames for Nadira
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 200045 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3070reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%15 in 2025, from 15
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Nadira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- نادرة in Arabic — same name
- نادرہ in Urdu — same name
- Nadire in Turkish — same name
- Nodira in Uzbek — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota.
Nadiras among us
people named Nadira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Nadira
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rainbow test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nadira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rainbow climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rainbow's path sketches the road Nadira is walking now.
Nadira sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Nadira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nadira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, brief and unusually apt — a name meaning rare.
- It belongs to a large and coherent family of Arabic adjective names.
- It is recognized across the Arab world, Central Asia and South Asia.
- English speakers move the stress to the second syllable.
- Nadira, Nadirah and Nadire are all in use.
- It will be confused with the unrelated Nadia and Nadine.
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What they receive
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Nadira
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nadiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Nadira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nadira in 2025?
- Nadira ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nadira?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Nadira — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nadira with classmates?
- Nadira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nadira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nadira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nadira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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